Voter fraud probe launched in Ga. House race

Ge­or­gia Sec­re­tary of State Brad Raf­fensperger opened an in­ves­ti­ga­tion Thurs­day into ac­cu­sa­tions of voter fraud in a state House elec­tion where sev­eral peo­ple voted even though they didn’t live in the dis­trict.

A judge al­ready threw out the elec­tion for the north­east Ge­or­gia House seat last week be­cause four who cast bal­lots were in­el­i­gi­ble to vote in the race.

Now Raf­fensperger’s of­fice will con­duct its own in­ves­ti­ga­tion into vot­ers who al­legedly cast bal­lots even though they had moved from House Dis­trict 28 more than 30 days be­fore the elec­tion.

“Elim­i­nat­ing voter fraud is es­sen­tial to strength­en­ing the in­tegrity of Ge­or­gia’s elec­tions, which is why I am com­mit­ted to fight­ing against crimes that un­der­mine our most fun­da­men­tal in­struc­tions and sow doubt in our com­mu­ni­ties,” Raf­fensperger said. “Voter fraud has no place in Ge­or­gia’s elec­tions, and my of­fice will ex­haust ev­ery av­enue to in­ves­ti­gate in­stances of abuse and pre­vent fur­ther in­jus­tice.”

Vot­ers will re­turn to the polls for a third time to de­cide whether Chris Er­win or Dan Ga­s­away should rep­re­sent them.

A judge in­val­i­dated the first elec­tion, the Repub­li­can pri­mary in May, be­cause dozens of Haber­sham County vot­ers were in­cor­rectly as­signed to the wrong House dis­trict. House Dis­trict 28 cov­ers about half of Haber­sham County, as well as Banks and Stephens coun­ties.

Then in the sec­ond elec­tion in De­cem­ber, a judge found that be­cause four vot­ers had moved be­fore­hand, the re­sults of the elec­tion were in doubt. Er­win had ap­peared to win by two votes.

The date of the third elec­tion hasn’t been set. There’s no Demo­cratic Party can­di­date in the race. So Ga­s­away, the in­cum­bent, or Er­win would fill the seat.